V – Return of the Daleks

The 7th Doctor gets involved with the events in Dalek Empire, as he tries to stop the Daleks gaining a terrible advantage in the war.

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Styre
on May 7, 2016 at 9:32 PM

RETURN OF THE DALEKS

With the end of 2006 and the departure of long-time Big Finish Doctor Who producer Gary Russell came two things: the annual subscribers’ bonus release and the arrival of new producer Nicholas Briggs. While the start of the Briggs era is generally regarded as the January 2007 release “Circular Time,” the first BF Doctor Who play with Briggs’ name on it was “Return of the Daleks,” fittingly a play linking the Doctor Who series with Briggs’ own Dalek Empire series. And, much like the Dalek Empire series itself, “Return of the Daleks” is full of both impressive moments and maddening inconsistencies.

Perhaps most impressive about this play — also written by Briggs — is its use of continuity. Describing the Jon Pertwee serial “Planet of the Daleks” as “bad” would be charitable, and yet Briggs takes that serial’s more interesting elements and translates them seamlessly into audio. It certainly makes sense that the Daleks would attempt to recover their frozen army on Spiridon, and the script revisits the Daleks’ problems with light-wave sickness to fascinating effect. The grander implications regarding the first Dalek Empire series are interesting as well: if the Daleks succeeded here, would they have felt it necessary to capture Project Infinity?

That’s probably the motive for the intervention by the seventh Doctor, presented here traveling alone, without a departed Ace and Hex. Briggs writes a wonderfully-enigmatic Doctor, played to brilliant effect by Sylvester McCoy, who tempts Kalendorf (Gareth Thomas) with secrets and half-truths. Perhaps it was unbelievable that the first Dalek Empire series could have proceeded without any involvement from the Doctor, but here we see that he was indeed involved, fighting small battles while allowing humanity to defend itself on a grand scale. We also see why the Dalek Empire series were better off without the Doctor: the Daleks drop everything when they learn of the presence of their ancient enemy, and McCoy’s presence naturally overshadows that of Thomas and Sarah Mowat’s Susan Mendes. But this qualification goes both ways: the Doctor Who format has never worked very well with the epic tone of the Dalek Empire saga, and that is illustrated perfectly by the ludicrous ending of “Return of the Daleks.” The first 90% of the play takes place over a relatively short period of time, but at the conclusion, the Doctor sacrifices himself to years of Dalek slavery in order to keep Kalendorf alive. Adding this sort of detail to the Doctor’s history isn’t something to be done on a whim, and yet Briggs throws it out there without any sort of background or consequence, cheapening the entire play and rendering it unbelievable.

The acting from the Dalek Empire leads is as good as at any point in that series — Mowat and Thomas play Suz and Kalendorf at their most strained, and impress. Christine Brennan also turns in a fine performance as Zalerian leader Skerrill — and, of course, Briggs is exceptional as ever as the Daleks. Matthew Cochrane’s sound design easily recaptures the feel of the original Dalek Empire series, while melding it with more Doctor Who-oriented effects, and Briggs’ music works much the same. Ultimately, though, the problem lies with the script: it’s a decent, unmemorable Doctor Who runaround until the shocking, disappointing ending. As a Dalek Empire play, this is very good — but as a Doctor Who play, it isn’t. Perhaps that will be the legacy of “Return of the Daleks” — an illustration of how Dalek Empire worked in part because it wasn’t Doctor Who in the first place.